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Oscar Isaac brings rhythm to the blues of Coens' 'Llewyn Davis'

By Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post

Posted:
12/16/2013 01:20:37 PM MST

Updated:
12/16/2013 01:20:46 PM MST

This film image released by CBS FIlms shows Oscar Isaac in a scene from "Inside Llewyn Davis." Isaac was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actor in a motion picture musical or comedy for his role in the film on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013. (Alison Rosa/AP Photo/CBS Films)

Some things seem ordained by timing.

Before Oscar Isaac was cast in the title role of Joel and Ethan Coen's muted marvel “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the Miami-raised, Brooklyn-based actor met a man on a film set who knew of New York's bygone folk-music scene.

Not the era Robert Zimmerman laid claim to once he took the name Bob Dylan. Not the Greenwich Village of Phil Ochs and Joan Baez. Instead, Eric Franzen knew the period captured in late folk singer Dave Van Ronk's memoir “The Mayor of MacDougal Street.”

“[Franzen] was an older gentleman,” Isaac recounted over lunch one afternoon in Telluride, where his film screened at the 40th Telluride Film Festival.

“In between takes he had a guitar and started playing. He was one of the most amazing guitar players I'd heard and playing very much in the style I was learning. This was before I even auditioned.”

Isaac asked Franzen if he knew who Dave Van Ronk was. He then imitates a rasp of a reply, “Yeah, I played with Dave.” Timing.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” is set in a betwixt-and-between moment. Into this forgotten instant, the Coens introduce their somewhat lost but artistically seeking singer Llewyn Davis.

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The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Like Alexander Payne's “Nebraska,” it introduced a thorny, fundamentally American protagonist to an embracing international audience.

Granted, Llewyn's not as prickly as “Nebraska's” Woody Grant. And with his deep brown eyes and wave of curls, he's a beauty. But, as he crashes on the couches of friends and heckles fellow folkies in clubs, he's not quite lovable.

“Oh, I loved him immediately,” Isaac said. “I think he's trying to express warmth, but he does it in such a different way than most of us do. He doesn't try to charm people or ingratiate himself. The only real thing he has any facility for is the music. So that's the only time he opens that door and you see the little blue bird in his soul.”

“T. Bone completely broke open my brain as far as what I thought about music, doing it in the gentlest, off-the-cuff ways, just dropping bits of wisdom,” said Isaac. “He said, 'Play it like you're playing it to yourself.' So that's how I play the character. He's always singing to himself. He's a bit of an island.”

Burnett has been humming Isaac's praises, too. After all, the Coens made the bold decision to shoot the music live, without the aid of any on-set tricks.

“His time was so good. Just his free spirit letting go,” Burnett said. “Amazing.”

“It's a little bit too much to register sometimes,” Isaac said of the acclaim he's received since Cannes. “The only way I can cope with it is to assume it's all lies.”

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